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Welcome, RotoBallers, to my official tiered rankings for week 16 of this NFL season! You can find my core plays at RB and WR each week in my Anchors column as well as the rest of my favorites plays in our premium cheat sheet.
The concept behind these rankings is to give you an idea of how to approach lineup building for this week's slate. I will rank all relevant players based on their point-per-dollar value in one of five tiers and then provide notes on each tier explaining how I plan to utilize each tier this week.
Tier 1 is going to have most of my favorite plays and likely a good bit of chalk, but you're not likely going to be able to build too many lineups ONLY using players from Tier 1.
Tiers 2 and 3 are going to have some players you will want to mix and match in lineups, likely at lower ownership than Tier 1.
Tiers 4 and 5 are players that I likely won't have much exposure to that week and are players that you should only consider in large field GPPs if you are going to be mass multi-entering a large number of lineups.
NFL Week 16 - Premium DFS Rankings
- Rankings are based primarily on DK pricing and are based on points-per-dollar value, not raw points.
- Core plays are highlighted in green boxes.
- Bold black font indicates the player is useable in all formats - tournaments and cash games.
- Bold blue font indicates the player is preferred for tournaments. These are usually lower-owned pivot plays.
- Red font indicates that I am fading that player, and wouldn't suggest any exposure to them even if you are making multiple builds.
- If a player is not on the chart, it's likely because they are only a part-time player on offense. I will attempt to update the rankings and notes each week on Saturday or Sunday morning once injury news becomes more concrete.
NOTES ARE UPDATED AS OF 1:30 PM Friday
Tier 1 Notes:
As usual, here's where all the goodness is! If you can make a lineup using only these players, that's an optimal build for cash games or small field single-entry.
I'm loving Tier One this week and I think it's pretty easy to make some builds without having to stray into the lower tiers all that much. We have some great value at RB this week and probably 4-5 cash viable backs. I'm prioritizing Robinson and Jones in cash and I'd make sure you have one of Mattison, Sanders (if he plays), or Jackson as your third back.
QB is very clear cut for me this week with these three guys well ahead of the pack for me and we shouldn't have to break the bank to find a quality, reliable QB.
Cooper Kupp is the highest-priced player on the slate, but you should be jamming him into cash games - it's that simple. The tight ends are both great plays, but Goedert's price is a lot easier to stomach in cash games.
Tier 2 Notes:
We have some pricy QBs with upside in this tier with Allen and Herbert and enough value to get to them if you want to in GPPs. I love Beckham Jr. this week as a pivot off Kupp or an additional piece of a Stafford-Kupp stack. Treadwell and McKenzie are really cheap pieces at receiver that would allow you to fit some more expensive guys in there. This tier is loaded with cheap tight ends and a mid-tier guy in Dawson Knox who could be a great play with the Bills being down several starting wide-outs.
There are definitely several running back pivots here worth considering, too, especially Monty, Williams, and CEH.
Tier 3 Notes:
Cordarrelle Patterson is going to be sneaky this week and I love it. The Falcons are likely to have a few guys post very usable scores against this Lions defense and we've seen be an optimal play in tournaments a bunch of times earlier in the season, he's just had a tough schedule lately.
As usual, there is a glutton of wideouts in this tier, but not too many that stand out to me. It's weird seeing Mahomes down here, but if he's missing some weapons and the Chiefs decide to focus on running the ball (which they should) he might not have his usual upside.
Tier 4 Notes:
I would never tell you not to play anyone if you have a really strong conviction about them or a specific angle you are targeting. But for me, I am likely keeping my builds to players from the top three tiers this week and focusing on cash games and single-entry or 3-max tournaments.
Tier 5 Notes:
Most of my fades are down here and guys that I don't see having much upside. I rarely dip into Tier 5 even in my GPP builds and you really shouldn't either, unless you are max-entering and want to grab a small percentage of a player there.
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